Itwas a warm afternoon and Alice was getting bored. She’d been sitting in the garden for too long, making daisy chains, while her sister was busy with a very strange book that had no drawings or pictures in it.
‘What’s the point of a book with no pictures?’ wondered Alice, with a yawn. And she was still wondering how to spend the rest of the afternoon when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes rushed past. There’s nothing amazing about that, but Alice was surprised by one thing and all of sudden she was wide awake. She’d seen the Rabbit stop behind the hedge and pull a large watch from his jacket pocket!
Thinking about it, the little girl recalled that she’d never seen a rabbit with a watch … or with a
jacket if it came to that. Alice jumped to her feet and decided to see where that funny animal was dashing off to, so she ran after him and passed the hedge just in time to see him disappear into a burrow, muttering: “Poor me! Poor me! I’m late!”
Alice thought it was really strange to hear a rabbit speak so she was intrigued and without thinking twice she knelt down and followed him down the narrow tunnel. She crawled along for a while then abruptly the ground under her gave way and she fell into a deep, dark tunnel!
As soon as she was small enough to get through the door, Alice ran out of the room and into the garden, where she found a small crowd of birds and other animals. They were standing around the two guinea pigs who were supporting Bill, the poor lizard who’d flown all the way over the fence.
As soon as Alice appeared, the angry birds went for her, but she ran as fast as she could, and in a moment found herself safe and sound, deep in the woods.
‘The first thing I have to do now,’ thought Alice, ‘is to grow again, until I get back to my proper size. Then I’ll find a way to reach that beautiful garden.’ It seemed to be ever such a good plan, although there was a problem: Alice had no idea how to make it happen! “Let’s see ... maybe I would grow again if I ate or drank something. But what?” That was certainly the problem. What should she choose? Alice looked around and saw flowers and blades of grass, but nothing that seemed a good idea to eat.
Gloomily Alice leaned against a strange mushroom, as tall as she was. She’d never seen one so big and looked hard at it in interest. After looking to see what was under it, next to it and behind it, she decided to look on top of the cap too and what do you think she saw?
“Mr. Cheshire Cat,” Alice said bashfully, “Can you tell me which way to go?”
“It really depends on where you want to go,” said the Cat.
“Oh, well, it doesn’t really matter where ...”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go, does it?”
“I meant that it matters that I get somewhere, you see.”
“Oh, you’ll get somewhere for sure if you keep on walking.”
Alice had the disagreeable feeling that she wasn’t being clear and was annoyed by the fact that a cat knew more than she did! She decided to change the question: “What is down there?” she asked, pointing to one of the paths.
“The path to the right will get you to the home of the March Hare; the one on the left will take you to the Mad Hatter’s. Although they’re both quite mad, actually.”
“I don’t want to go where there are lunatics!” protested Alice. “Oh, but you can’t help that: everyone’s mad here, including me,” said the cat, adding with a grin, “so are you, my dear, or you wouldn’t be here. Now tell me, are you going to the Queen’s for croquet?”
“I’d love to,” cried Alice. “So I’ll see you there!” And as he spoke these words, the Cat began to fade very slowly, starting from the tip of his tail and ending with his grin, which continued to float in the air for a long time before disappearing completely. Alice wasn’t a bit surprised: she’d already seen so many extraordinary things although she had to admit, a grin floating in the air was something decidedly odd. While she thought about what she’d just seen, she reached the March Hare’s house and in front of it a table set for tea and here the Hare sat, next to the Mad Hatter.
The Gryphon woke up, yawned widely and as soon as the Queen had disappeared behind the hedge, said, “It’s funny, right?”
“What’s funny?” Alice answered.
“That the Queen really believes all those people are being executed. It’s what she thinks, but no one is ever really executed, you know? Come with me.”
Alice followed it reluctantly: “Everyone here says ‘come here’, ‘go there’,” she muttered, walking behind the Gryphon. “I’ve never been ordered about so much in my life.”
THEY HADN’T GONE VERY FAR WHEN IN THE DISTANCE THEY SAW THE MOCK TURTLE SITTING ALONE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIELD.
As they got closer, Alice heard it sigh with such great sadness that her eyes immediately filled with tears. “Why is he so sad?” she asked the Gryphon. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! Come along, let’s get closer and he’ll tell you himself,” said the Gryphon. Then it turned to the Mock Turtle and said “This little girl would like to hear your story.”
“Very well, then, I’ll tell her,” said the Mock Turtle in a deep voice, “Sit here next to me, and don’t you dare interrupt me.”
They sat down and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice was beginning to get bored and thought to herself: ‘No one will interrupt for sure, if he doesn’t start talking!’ But she waited patiently until the Mock Turtle sighed deeply and shook his head, saying: “Once I was a real turtle.” Those words were followed by a long silence, broken only by his sobs and “Oh! Uh!” a few times from the Gryphon.
Alice was about to get up, saying, “Thank you, sir, that was a very interesting story!” when the Mock Turtle began talking again.
When Alice and the Gryphon arrived, they saw the King and Queen of Hearts sitting on the throne. A large crowd had gathered in front of them: there was the whole deck of cards, and there were birds and other animals, whispering and pointing their paws at the Knave. He was standing alone in front of the throne, with a soldier on either side to guard him. Then near the King was the White Rabbit, clutching a trumpet in his right paw and a scroll of parchment in the other. Lastly, in the middle of the court was a large table with a fine display of tarts that looked delicious. Alice had never seen a court but had heard about them and she tried to recognize what she saw. After looking around for a few minutes she whispered to the Gryphon: “That’s the judge!” pointing at the King who wore a huge wig with his crown over it. “And those must be the jurors!” she added, delighted to remember such a difficult word. She was about to say something about lawyers, when the White Rabbit cried: “Silence in the court!”
“Read the charge,” said the King and the Rabbit blew the trumpet three times, unrolled the parchment and read what was written there:
THE QUEEN OF HEARTS SHE MADE SOME TARTS ALL ON A SUMMER DAY, THE KNAVE OF HEARTS HE STOLE THE TARTS... AND TOOK THEM CLEAN AWAY!
“Call the first witness,” cried the King, and in came the Mad Hatter, with a cup of tea in one hand and a slice of bread-and-butter in the other. “What do you know about this?” asked the King. “Nothing at all, Your Majesty,” said the Hatter, who began to get nervous as the Queen gazed at him sternly, and he fidgeted from one foot to another, in his confusion taking a bite of the cup instead of the bread-and-butter. “In that case you can go,” said the Rabbit and the Hatter vanished into the crowd, just as the bored Queen exclaimed: “Before he goes, cut off his head.”
“Now the second witness.” Alice was keen to know who would be called now, so imagine her surprise when she heard the Rabbit say: “Alice!”
MANUELA ADREANI, born in Rome but now resident in Turin. After taking a diploma specializing in illustration, she worked as a graphic artist and then progressed to the world of animation. After winning a scholarship for a master course in animation at Turin’s IED, she worked for the Lastrego e Testa studio on TV series produced and broadcast by Italy’s RAI television: Le avventure di Aladino, Amita della Giungla and also on La Creazione, based on the book by Carlo Fruttero. In 2011 she embarked on a career as a freelance illustrator, working with Benchmark and Scholastic India. She was one of the winners of the illustration contest organized for the 130th anniversary of the creation of Pinocchio. In 2013, she produced the volume Pinocchio or Edizioni White Star.
Adaptation of the text GIADA FRANCIA
Graphic design MARINELLA DEBERNARDI
WS whitestar kids® is a registered trademark property of White Star s.r.l.
© 2013, 2026 White Star s.r.l. Piazzale Luigi Cadorna, 6 20123 Milan, Italy www.whitestar.it
Translation: Contextus s.r.l., Pavia (Angela Arnone)
Editing: Contextus s.r.l., Pavia
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First printing, October 2026
ISBN 978-88-544-2213-1
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